[saczel]

Almost ready now as the rubber plugs turned up and the latest experiments don’t seem to re-rust again. I was going to level it up and make sure the highest part is the flange end. There should not be a chance to build up any gas other than what escapes where i want it to. It will constantly lose some water but topping it up every day will make sure it totally gets everything inside. I found a really old vulcanizing clamp hanging from a nail just under the house and the thread was rusted together fully after getting rained on for possibly 50+ years. About 2 x 8 hour sessions and it’s usable again, no rust left on it where it was wet. Waiting for the weekend to begin.

[saczel]

The first setup probably removed about 80% of the rust after about 16 hours. It slowed down quite a bit with not much bubbling going on and it had what looked like course river sand settling on the bottom. I drained it and the sand turned out to be rust coloured sludge and using the inspection mirror there is a sludge stuck to the top which might need some manual removing. I thought i would perceiver with a fresh mix of sodium carb but it still was not doing much, still a few little rusty sections but the process seems to be going slow so i made a bigger anode but now there is no circuit on 6v so i am thinking it needs more amps than this charger can give. 12v makes the charger say it’s finished charging and still not much seems to be happening. If anyone is going to try this make sure it is levelled with a incline towards an opening, potentially explosive if you make a hydrodgen bubble inside and create a spark. My phone level app says its on a 2 degree incline or about 20mm over the length of the tank and no huge pockets of gas appear to get stuck behind the baffle. Further online searches found that carbon is the best anode. Hard to get a good photo inside but it is heaps better with the steel looking like the original blue metallic finish. I did look up on embrittlement but thought i had no option and it’s not really a structural item but a good call mentioning it anyway. Looking at upgrading the charger next.

[saczel]

It’s making a circuit on 6v with the new anode, after sitting in the tank a few days it wants to work now. It must need to be really clean. Working better by the looks of it.

[bumstein]

Sensational work!! Good reading

[saczel]

Time to drain the electrolite as things where slowing down again. Scored an old arlec 8a charger and it did better than the 3a one. 1 more hit will probably do it. Hard to get a circuit going now. Can’t see a way to upload photos on the page i get. Updated the old link with some photos. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zlaif7bcleuu ... gy5Wa?dl=0

[Joe]

I think that pic link only works if ya signed into Dropbox, I use Imgur for posting pics.

[bumstein]

I could see the pics. Intriguing!!

[saczel]

Dropbox works ok but mixes up the order, probably have a setting wrong. I tried a few times to have some photos downloaded with the post but i keep getting told by the website that the size is too big even after massive cropping so maybe it’s an iphone thing. Much easier to link to dropbox. Most of the sludge was black this time but there where some big flakes falling off and underneath the steel was almost white and i think it’s to do with how close the anode is. As the rust is reduced so is it’s ability to make a circuit and the anode needs constant wire brushing or nothing happening at all which is where a carbon/graphite anode would be better. I think it must be 2/2.5mm thick, it doesn’t quite fell heavy enough for 3mm.